Rivermen strike back, beat Heat 4-3 in shootout

Adam Cracknell took one on the shin to help the Peoria Rivermen deliver one to the chin of the Abbotsford Heat on Tuesday in a key AHL duel.

Dave Eminian

Adam Cracknell took one on the shin to help the Peoria Rivermen deliver one to the chin of the Abbotsford Heat on Tuesday in a key AHL duel.

The Rivermen captain tied the game with 47.2 seconds left and Peoria’s net empty for an extra attacker, then survived a sudden-death overtime and went on to beat the Heat, 4-3, in a shootout tiebreaker before 3,269 at Carver Arena.

Cracknell picked up a rebound near the right post, tried a desperation shot, and watched as the puck deflected back at him, bounced off his shin guard, and hopped over goaltender Danny Taylor’s glove shoulder with :47.2 left in regulation to tie the game at 3-3.

Abbotsford earned a four-on-three power play in the overtime session and hammered Peoria goaltender Ben Bishop with 9 shots.

Bishop kept the Rivermen alive, then stopped four of five penalty-shot challengers in the shootout while Peoria challengers Derek Nesbitt and Brett Sterling scored to send the team to its ninth win in 12 games and give Bishop his league-leading and career-high 24th win.

“I whiffed a little bit on the shot,” Cracknell said, grinning. “Nesbitt got in there and had a chance, then the puck came back to me and I shot it. It hit something and came right back at me and bounced off my shin guard, went right over (Taylor’s) shoulder.

“That was pretty lucky. We needed that point, and we needed the extra point in that shootout, too, that was huge for us.”

Abbotsford built a 2-0 lead on its first three shots in the first 6:13 of the game as Ben Walter and former Rivermen winger Akim Aliu each beat Bishop.

Aliu rocked Rivermen winger Stefan Della Rovere at 9:50 of the second period when he left his skates, leaped up toward the Rivermen player and delivered an elbow to his head.

“I golf with Aliu over the summer,” Della Rovere said. “He apologized right away on the ice. The referee said it was incidental contact.”

Della Rovere was helped off, but later returned to the game. No penalties were called, but it did seem to be a turning point for the Rivermen.

“Any time you see one of your guys take a hit like that, the adrenalin goes up for everyone,” said veteran Rivermen defenseman Brennan Evans, who followed a Phil McRae goal to tie the game at 2-2 five minutes later. “It definitely got us going. And then I just tried to get a shot on the net and not fall down.”

Evans did both.

He tied the game at 15:34 when, falling backward at the left point, he delivered a shot through a screen that sneaked past Taylor’s blocker for 2-2.

The Heat took a 3-2 lead at 5:54 of the third period on a mistake by Rivermen defenseman Ian Cole, who brought the puck out from behind the Peoria net and cut across the doorstep in front of Bishop.

Walter reached in and swatted the puck off Cole’s stick and into the net.

Cracknell’s heroics followed.

RIVER READINGS: The Rivermen lost AHL All-Star center and power-play quarterback T.J. Hensick right before the game Tuesday as he was called up by the St. Louis Blues. The parent club is battling injuries and the flu and is down to 12 healthy forwards. Hensick could play Wednesday against Boston.

Dave Eminian can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.